The Rundown Take
Blake Baker Is Out — So Who Actually Calls Miami's Defense Now?
The news finally went official this Friday: defensive coordinator Blake Baker is out, landing at LSU in what Devin and co-host E call an easy handoff rather than a firing. With Manny Diaz already declaring himself the defense's play-caller, the U Talk panel spent the night working through who fills the coordinator void — Ed Reed? T-Rob? Nobody at all? — while also previewing the new staff and throwing out season predictions.
Key Takeaways
- Blake Baker is officially gone to LSU; the panel calls it addition-by-subtraction after a defense that was statistically and visually bad in the big games last season.
- Manny Diaz has already self-proclaimed himself defensive coordinator — the debate is whether Ed Reed and new DBs coach T-Rob get co-coordinator titles or stay in support roles.
- Bob Shoop joins as a defensive analyst — ironically, he took over the 4-2-5 scheme at Mississippi State the year after Manny left that same job, so the scheme familiarity runs deep.
- Auburn linebackers coach Travis Williams is rumored incoming, reportedly pushed by T-Rob himself.
- Transfer portal chaos hits the backfield: Robert Burns enters the portal after slipping to RB4 on the depth chart, N'Kosi ("Cosi") and Tate Martell's situations remain murky, and if D'Eriq King isn't ready Week 1, the word is Tyler Van Dyke knows the playbook front to back.
The Ed Reed Tweet
A tweet from Ed Reed declaring "I am a coach" sent the chat into a full breakdown session. Caller J. Blaze argued Reed doesn't actually want to coach — going from chief of staff to a position or coordinator role would read as a demotion — while Devin and E pushed back that the tweet sure sounded like a guy who wants to be a head coach, pointing to Deion Sanders taking the Jackson State job as the model Reed might be chasing. Either way, the room agreed new arrival T-Rob pairing with Reed is one of the best moves the staff could've made.
"I don't know if Manny's gonna use him properly, because Manny has been more of a politician lately than actually a coach."
Nine-and-Three or Ten-and-Two? The Predictions Get Loud
With the schedule finally out, the panel and callers traded win totals: Devin landed on 8-4 with losses to Alabama, North Carolina and a road trip he was sure was Michigan State; E and caller Cuban Kane both went 9-3; JR called 10-2. Caller Go White, dialing in from Orlando, played the realist — a new offensive coordinator entering his second year, a rebuilt secondary and Alabama on the road in Week 1 is a lot to bank on, no matter how many starters are back. The defense got its own debate, with predictions ranging top-10 to top-20 depending on whether the linebacker room and returning DL coach Jeff Simmon can get the pass rush right, and the group floated moving Amari Carter to linebacker to add juice at the position.